After brooding unhappily for several hours, I decided to post my pains.Once again I have experienced the pains of failing to acquire something on ebay. The auction I am about to link ended literally seconds before I could "buy it now". I was viewing the page and I clicked "buy it now" and it was already sold. Moments after I had finished reading the details and consulting Tolkienguide.us (less than a minute maybe) the item was bought. Imagine having the rush of excitement and pleasure coursing through your veins; then in a single instant it cut short. I have lost auctions before that I have bid on, and I was of course disappointed at the time, but never have I clicked "buy it now" to discover that I have been beaten. When you bid on any item you know that there is a great possibility that you will be out bid, but having the feeling of all certainty ripped from you, was a new ebay experience for me. I admit I swore loudly, and was quite angry with the buyer, but now I come here for your opinions on the item up for auction.

I am under the impression that a Ballantine Silver Jubilee Edition in great condition was a steal of a deal for 20.00usd

When deciding to buy it in the one minute after I read the description, Tolkienguide.us influenced my decision a bit.

TOLKIENGUIDE.US PROFILE FOR SET

Ballantine Silver Jubilee Edition, 1981-1985Cover illustrations by Darrell K. SweetThe "Silver Jubilee" set commemorating the 25th anniversary of the release of The Lord of the Rings was boxed in the gold "Heraldry" slipcase. These books were also boxed in a golden brown slipcase with matching artwork. Newly revised editions of The Hobbit and Fellowship were released (Jan82, Mar84) in these covers, and the print numbers were started over with one(1). Ballantine has stopped labeling each print year with its own book number, and the box ISBNs are the first searchable numbers found for mass market PB sets thus far. The SBNs for The Hobbit were issued 1981 and 1984. Many databases have image or date errors regarding this increasingly sought after set.ISBN: 0345296052, 0345296060, 0345296087 Hobbit: 03452960441985 ISBN: 0345332083, 0345332105, 0345332091 Hobbit: 0345318587Box 1983: 0345195299 Box 1984: 0345296079

What are your thoughts? Was it a sore loss? Was it really a bad deal? Was I saved from 20 dollars down the drain? Or did I miss a good opportunity

Thanks for reading and replying

-Tom

Posted on: 2008/1/1 18:09

_________________If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

I think everybody has missed out on something they really wanted on eBay. I missed out on one of the first 500 boxed LOTR sets ever issued (from 1957) before Christmas – I am still very sore about it even now…!

Rowns is the man to ask about U.S. paperback prices, but $20 for a good condition boxed set sounds ok to me.

The advice from Khamul and Parmastahir on collecting is very sound, have a good look around before really get going. I started out by trying to get a copy of every book he wrote, and just went on from there.

For the most part it only covers British editions, so Ace Books, Ballantine Books and Houghton Mifflin editions do not appear. The best online source for information on American editions is probably the U.S. Tolkien Guide.

[That said, I am researching the whole Ace Books ‘Pirate Edition’ episode at the moment, so there will be an article at TolkienBooks.net at some stage that will give lots of information about the Ace and Ballantine editions.]

Much of the information known about the Ace and Ballantine editions comes from Wayne Hammond’s Tolkien Bibliography. It is an expensive book, but very useful. Your local library might be able to order it for you to have out on loan for a while - have a look through it before you buy.

Ace Books - There were 150,000 copies of each of the 3 volumes of LOTR printed and there were no reprints.

Ballantine – The number of copies of the first printing is unknown, but 125,000 copies of each volume were printed in the U.S. and another 10,000 in Canada by 17 January 1966. There had been 40 printings by 1973.

Houghton Mifflin – Print quantities for early printings of the HM LOTR can be found at TolkienBooks.net.

If you want to know more about print quantities for U.S. editions of Tolkien's other books, then Hammond’s bibliography is a must.

Its too bad about that auction you missed, but I bet it sold for a tidy sum when it all was over.

I happen to love your website, one thing I am disappointed about is that there isn't really a rarity estimate on the books. Obviously everything is worth different price depending on the buyer, but it would be nice to have a ballpark rarity range to know if you are being scammed. Aside from that I was the most informative site I have seen so far.

Thanks for replying

-Tom

Posted on: 2008/1/2 15:55

_________________If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Please do not agonize over that set. There is no doubt in my mind WHATSOEVER that another will show up. Consider that auction a deposit in your eBay bank of experience. You now know that it was worth at least $20 to someone out there. My goal would now be to get it for less than that! Good luck!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parmastahir

Posted on: 2008/1/3 5:38

_________________
Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise can not see all ends.